UCF football team was not robbed as blatantly as Winter Park High water polo team

Winter Park girls water polo team got dunked by the Florida High School Athletic Association (Orlando Sentinel)

If you thought the UCF football team got robbed of a chance to play for a championship; that's nothing compared to the shameful debacle the Florida High School Athletic Association has perpetrated on the Winter Park High School girls water polo team.

Winter Park should be playing in the state semifinal this weekend for the right to play in the state championship game, but instead it will be Lake Mary. Why? Because first-year FHSAA executive director George Tomyn totally blew it and botched a ruling that was preposterously and unanimously rubber-stamped by the FHSAA Board of Directors. As a result, a bunch of hard-working Winter Park girls who fairly and squarely won a regional final game against Lake Mary were cheated out of an amazing victory and a chance at the memory of a lifetime that a state championship would have provided.

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In case you haven't heard, the Winter Park girls originally won the regional final with an incredible 7-6 triple-overtime victory over Lake Mary last weekend. However, the FHSAA reversed the victory after it was learned that game officials used the wrong overtime rules.

Here's the explanation in the words of the Sentinel's prep-writing legend Buddy Collings:

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"The FHSAA states that the first goal scored in overtime determines the winner of a playoff game. That procedure was not used by refs who met with coaches prior to Saturday's tiebreaker and said (they were following the National Federation rulebook) and there would be two 3-minute overtime periods followed by a sudden-death period if necessary."

"Winter Park initially celebrated victory and a berth in this weekend's state tournament when McCarron Evans scored off an assist from Molly Banksto culminate a triple-overtime 7-6 victory.

"But two days later, following an appeal by Lake Mary, the Florida High School Athletic Association declared the Rams the winner by a 5-4 score based on its finding that referees applied an incorrect overtime format to decide a game tied 4-4 at the end of regulation.

"By state rule the game should have gone directly to sudden-death OT. And because Lake Mary scored the first goal in extra time the FHSAA ruled Monday that the Rams are region champions because the remainder of the two 3-minute OT periods and sudden death was null and void."

This, of course, is an absolute joke. Even though the officials used the wrong overtime rules, both teams knew the rules as they were prescribed and played the overtime period under those rules. It's unheard of for a sports governing body to retroactively go back and change the result of a game — even if the officials did make a mistake. It doesn't happen in the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, MLS, or college football. And it shouldn't happen in high school water polo either!

"In any sport they don't go back and change the outcome of a game," said 30th-year Winter Park coach Barry Creighton. "If the referees make a bad call, they make a bad call. You live with that. It's part of sports. For them to go back and change this is really unfathomable."

The amazing thing is that the FHSAA apparently stripped Winter Park of the victory without Lake Mary even filing an official protest. However, it should be noted Lake Mary coach Paige Baker, according to school athletics director Doug Peters, did point out to game officials at the time that she felt they were utilizing the wrong overtime rules.

"My coach (Baker) said she questioned the official at the appropriate time. I feel like if they could have taken a few minutes to check that rule when she voiced her opinion all of this could have been avoided," Peters said. "She was as polite as she possibly could be and she's getting butchered. And she was the one who was right the whole time."

Translation: The public criticism of Baker is even more collateral damage due to the FHSAA's flawed ruling.

The fact is every girl in the pool and every coach on the deck knew the rules — albeit incorrectly applied — as the overtime periods were being contested. This is why Winter Park should have won the game.

And speaking of rules, the FHSAA should be further barbecued and ridiculed for going against its own by-laws when ruling against Winter Park's appeal of the stolen victory.

In the appeal, Winter Park cited clause 1.6.1 in FHSAA rules that states: "the decision of the officials shall be final," that "protests of interscholastic events shall not be allowed," and that "the outcome of all interscholastic contests are final and can not be reversed."

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Good grief, how is this FHSAA ruling even possible? Why did Tomyn, the FHSAA's executive director, ignore the organization's own rules ("The decision of the officials shall be final.") by originally reversing Winter Park's victory in the first place? And, likewise, why did the FHSAA's board of directors ignore those same rules by denying Winter Park's appeal?

And then there's this: The National Federation rules that the game officials used are actually better rules than the state FHSAA rules. Two 3-minute overtime periods followed by a sudden-death period is a much more fair and equitable way to determine who is actually the superior team.

This is obviously a job for UCF Athletics Director Danny White.

Just as he commissioned national championship rings for his gypped football team, maybe it's time to order state championship rings for the ripped-off girls water polo team at Winter Park High School.

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9 a.m. on FM 96.9 and AM 740.